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grapevine

A collection of 657 issues

Naval Gazing

One of my customers is fascinated (or should that be obsessed?!) with military history, and also its relevance to sales war zones. He’s called Ken Welsh and kindly sent me a couple of his fave tales from this sphere. The first is from George C Scott in “Patton: Lust

Provide Problem Peace Of Mind

A customer of mine’s moving from a split hunter/farming approach to embrace greater account management rewards. The reps seem excited about this, and one of them suggested that to truly succeed, they should consider the question: “what is the one thing you want from your relationship with your

Breaking Their Habit

Here’s insight gained from a lovely fella called “Lachie”, selling engineering supplies into a brand new patch for his company. The last time he embarked on such a task, within two years he went from zero to full quota, all from a standing start. His secret is focusing on

Low Volume Opportunities

I’ve been helping a 10-strong sales team sell a new product lately. Each one had to nominate 5 accounts where they thought they could sell it. I then helped by recording for them what happened when they pitched it. A few months in, there is now a problem. Very

The First 3 Slides

How many ‘corporate overview’ presentations have you delivered? There comes a point in most sales campaigns when the prospect wants to know more about your firm. My early selling days allowed me to select any from around 100 of the old 35mil projection slides. My elders and betters reckoned 45

Tooth Comb Qualification

When I make business-related purchases, I secretly hope to pick up a selling tip from the hopeful vendor. One such case occured in Cape Town, not a place exactly brimming with dynamic business vibes. It’d had been a touch too long between discussions between me and vendor Peter. When

Overcoming Worn Down Buyer Cynicism

A customer of mine sell big ticket printing kit and software. It’s the highest price tag in the market, and customers luckily get what they pay for, as it’s considered ‘the best’. They’re addressing an issue at the moment with RoI business case presentations. It appears that

Opposite Extreme Bags A Whale

When I first started out reppin’, my (much older) sales colleagues used to talk of landing their “whale of a deal”. Breaking into ‘corporate’ acccounts took up a lot of our idle conversation time. There was often frustration that the highest paid reps would be given named accounts to hunt

A New Spin on SPIN

One of my customers many moons ago paid to join the Huthwaite ‘spin selling’ programme. Then later, they left the fold. Wanting to keep some of the best bits on-board, they evolved their use of the concept. They now call it NPINS. The idea is that the initials still stand

Personal Gain Identification

One of my customers recently had a 3-day Miller Heiman [http://www.millerheiman.com] strategic selling course. When I asked them the one thing that they took from it, their answer was unequivocal; uncovering personal gain. Most sales people have heard of the Miller Heiman Blue Sheet philosophy, which is